Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Not overnight: Melania Trump had years to prepare as first lady -- Dec. 22, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

In the olden days before he let loose on Twitter, Donald J.
Trump called Howard Stern’s radio show and let loose.

In June 1999, Trump confided on air that his daughter Ivanka,
then 17, had made him swear he wouldn’t date anyone younger than she was.

“As she grows older, the field is getting very limited,” the twice-married
billionaire joked.

A few months later, Trump, 53, was dating a beautiful
Slovenian model named

Melania Knauss, 26, less than half his age but old enough
to meet his daughter’s rule, and he reportedly was “exploring” a White House
bid.

Bad boy Stern had Trump and Knauss by phone on his program
and asked her what she was wearing.

“Not much,” she replied. The conversation went downhill from
there. Trump bragged about their sex
life.

Asked soon afterwards about her boyfriend’s comments on their
relationship, Knauss told feature writer Joyce Wadler of The New York Times:
“It’s the man thing, that’s how the man talks.” Sound familiar?

The prescient Wadler wrote:

“Is Mr. Trump a lucky billionaire or what? He’s got a woman
who does not simply stand by her man but over him. (Five feet 10 ½ inches, but
over six feet in her spiky Manolo Blahniks)...she has done Vogue covers in
Europe. She also speaks four languages.

“Who she is, beyond that, is difficult to say, for speaking
with Ms. Knauss is like speaking with a huge, shimmering bubble. She’s light,
she’s fun, she’s exceptionally wonderful to look at; two hours later you walk
away and the conversation disappears into the air. Pop! If anything substantial
was said, it is difficult to recall. She might, in other words, be the perfect
political spouse.”

The frothy story ended with what newspapers called a kicker –
a surprise revelation. In this case, it was a preposterous question: What would
Melania’s role be as first lady if she and her boyfriend ever did end up in the
White House?

Knauss didn’t laugh or blow it off.

“I would be very traditional. Like Betty Ford or Jackie
Kennedy,” she said. “I would support him.”

Trump married his third wife in 2005, and their son Barron
was born in 2006, the same year she became a United States citizen.

Most Americans trace Trump’s political debut to his escalator
ride in June 2015 and fail to consider his long game, that he was turning over
the possibility of the presidency, even as a lark, in 1999.

The Trump family will be White House-bound in less than a
month. Well, he will be. Melania Trump and Barron are staying in New York until
the end of the school year. Her full-time job is as mom, she says.

Daughter Ivanka Trump, now 36, and her husband Jared Kushner, parents
of three, are house-hunting in Washington. She may have an office in the East
Wing and may stand in as first lady on social occasions.

By any measure, the Trump presidency will be unlike others.

But Melania Trump and all first ladies must cope with one
immutable truth: The presidency is hard on families.

“The next family that comes in here -- every person in that
family, every child, every grandchild – their lives will be turned upside down
in a way that no American really understands,” first lady Michelle Obama told
Oprah Winfrey this week on CBS.

President President Barack Obama and Michelle were fierce
warriors for Hillary Clinton, but they have shown extreme grace since the
election, vowing to help the Trumps however they can. Donald Trump, rarely
generous toward Obama, has praised the president and first lady for their
kindness.

So, it was jarring to see Michelle
Obama tell Winfrey: “Now we are feeling what not having hope feels like.”

That comment from an advance clip
was newsworthy because she was speaking for millions of disappointed voters. When
the full program aired later, however, it was clear that the current first lady
has compassion for the next.